After one
bout with kidney cancer, it seemed Ryan assistant football coach Eric Lokey was
the winner of a fight that required kidney removal and 28 stitches in his
stomach.

And after
months of no signs of recurrence, cancer decided it wanted a rematch with
Lokey.

With his
faith, family and a strong network of supporters in his corner, Lokey is back
to win another fight with the disease. This time it’ll be much more difficult.

Lokey has
Stage IV renal cell carcinoma, which is the highest level a cancer can be
diagnosed. A cancer is diagnosed as Stage IV when it spreads to other organs in
the body, according to the National Cancer Institute.

“When you
hear that, it just scares you to death and everything,” Lokey said. “It’s
pretty serious, but it’s not something that can’t be beat. We’re in for a
fight, that’s for sure.”

Lokey has
a tumor in his liver and a tumor in his lung. The tumors have not grown since
they’ve been spotted, but they’re there.

Even with
his cancer, Lokey was out in the heat during Ryan’s summer football workouts,
helping the Raiders prepare for the upcoming season. And if Lokey has it his
way, he’s not going to let cancer stand between him and the field.

“I’m
planning on not missing a beat for this season,” Lokey said. “It shouldn’t get
in the way of any games or anything like that. It’s just one of those hurdles
in life that you’ve got to get over.”

According
to the National Cancer Data Base, 13.75 percent of those diagnosed with kidney
cancer in 2010 were diagnosed with Stage IV cancer.

This
season will be Lokey’s 11th season at Ryan as an assistant coach, and he’s
built a reputation for consistently having some of the best defensive linemen
in the nation.

Ryan head
coach Joey Florence said everybody was shocked when Lokey’s cancer resurfaced.
When Florence was at Rockwall, he played middle school football against Lokey
when he was at North Mesquite.

Florence
said that in the spring his sociable, tough-minded assistant coach would drive
to Houston for treatments and checkups and come back to work, while the other
Ryan assistants collectively picked up where Lokey left off.

“It’s
been business as usual, as far as working,” Florence said. “But at the same
time, you’ve got this tremendous fight ahead of him that we’re all aware of,
and that’s what he’s doing right now. He starting the fight, and we’ll be there
for him through that, too.”

In April,
the 47-year-old went to the doctor for his second checkup to make sure the
cancer had not returned. Lokey and his wife, Debi, sat in the doctor’s office
as they received the news and asked what they needed to do to improve Lokey’s
chances of survival and win the fight.

For
starters, the Lokeys switched to a vegan diet while they tried to secure a spot
at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, where Lokey’s chances of surviving
longer could increase. The fight had begun.

Standing,
fighting together

If
somebody calls Lokey’s cellphone and he doesn’t answer, they won’t hear his
calm, deep voice filled with tones of his Texas roots. Instead, they’ll hear
the voice of his wife, who will kindly tell callers to leave their information
and her husband will get back to them.

When
Lokey was a freshman at Stephen F. Austin, before he became an All-America
linebacker, he was at SFA’s freshman orientation and a “Casino Night” mixer put
on by the university.

He
noticed a woman who got excited because something good apparently had happened.
Lokey looked at her, turned to his friend and said, “See that blonde right
there? That’s the girl I’m going to marry.”

Eric and
Debi Lokey have been married for 28 years and have three sons. The duo is in
the midst of fighting Lokey’s cancer together. Debi Lokey has joined her
husband in his vegan diet and taken a leave from work to tend to him.

As he’s
fought through the cancer, Debi’s kept a journal of the whole situation at
www.CaringBridge.org, where she regularly posts updates on how things are going
with the couple.

She said
they’ve lived in 20 houses and eight towns, as his coaching career and her
career in education as either a teacher or a principal has built a network of
people they know, and she wanted to keep everybody informed.

“My
biggest fear is that somebody that we cared about would get some wrong
information and hear a rumor, and not have accurate information and be hurt by
it,” Debi Lokey said.

Their son
Taylor said his father has been told by several people that he was the
picturesque version of what a healthy man’s lifestyle consists of. Taylor said
it only took a couple of days after the second diagnosis of the cancer for his
parents to start doing what they could to combat the disease.

“It
wasn’t long after they initially got the news that they were in fight mode,”
Taylor Lokey said. “They were ready to go, and they’ve been that way ever
since.”

‘Lokeystrong’

On
Lokey’s CaringBridge page, there’s a section where photos can be posted. There
are many photos of wrists, all donning orange rubber wristbands with the phrase
“Lokeystrong” on one side.

On the
other side is the phrase “No One Fights Alone,” a motto that’s proven true
during Lokey’s bout with cancer.

The idea
came from one of Lokey’s former players, Nick Rinks. Rinks modified the phrase
of the Lance Armstrong cancer campaign that featured “Livestrong” on bright
yellow bracelets.

Debi
Lokey originally ordered 250 orange bracelets. Then another 250 were ordered.
Then that wasn’t enough, so she ordered another 350 bracelets.

She
estimates that about 75 bracelets are left. She also said she received a call
from the Ryan football booster club, saying the entire varsity team will be
wearing the bracelets in honor of its assistant coach.

People
have taken pictures in Italy, Switzerland and Times Square showing their
support for Lokey.

“You
don’t feel alone anytime that you know that there’s a team of warriors behind
you,” Debi Lokey said. “Eric and I have been in athletics our entire life. We
know the concept of team. We’re stronger because of the people behind us.”

Debi said
she received a card from the Bible study class of one of her co-workers from
Silsbee to show their support of Eric.

“We don’t
know those people from Adam, but they’re praying for Eric,” Debi Lokey said.

Beating
the cancer

As for
the actual battle with the cancer, Eric Lokey is entering fairly uncharted
territory.

Lokey
said he’s one of only two people at MD Anderson who is taking an experimental
trial of vaccines designed to strengthen the immune system and eventually cause
the tumors to shrink and disappear.

The U.S.
Food and Drug Administration has not approved what he’s taken, a cocktail of
two vaccines to cure Lokey’s ailment. Lokey said he e-mails the cancer center
every day to let the doctors know of any side effects. It’s a 12-week process
with four individual doses taken during that time.

Over the
last week, Lokey has experienced nausea, fatigue and a loss of appetite, among
other stomach-related side effects.

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